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THE  SALARIED 

MAN 


IE  STORY  IN  TWO  EPISODES 
OF  AN  EVERY-DAY  PERSON 


Copyright  1920 

RAND  SCHOOL  OF  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 

7  East   I5th  Street 

NEW  YORK  CITY    N.  Y. 


TD 


\  ^ 


THE  SALARIED 
MAN 


g  THE  STORY,  IN  TWO  EPISODES,  OF 

^  AN  EVERY-DAY  PERSON. 


■^  EPISODE  I 

When  I  sat  down  in  the  street  car  besides  him,  he  did 

>    not  even  lift  his  head,  although  I  purposely  jostled  him. 

tj    He  was  absorbed  in  a  book  whose  title  read,  "Motion 

^    Study  in  the  Factory,"  and  he  was  drinking  it  in  with 

-^    the  eagerness  of  a  young  girl  in  the  clutches  of  a  novel. 

^  Before  I  addressed  George  Cox,  whom  I  had  not  seen 
V  for  nine  years,  I  scrutinized  him  out  of  the  corner  of  my 
^    eye,  and  I  was  a  little  startled. 

>'  Cox  was  a  man  who  had  set  a  new  high  record  for 
scholarship  at  his  college.  With  his  leaning  towards 
business,  we  more  humble  classmates  expected  him  in 

o    time  to  bestride  the  commercial  world  like  a  Colossus. 

h-    Professors  deplored  the  fact  that  he  would  not  teach,  but 

j5  admitted  that  there  was  no  money  in  it.  Was  there 
money  in  what  Cox  had  done? 

For  as  I  studied  him,  I  became  aware  that  he  did  not 
have  the  "clothesmarks"  of  success.  The  careful  press- 
ing of  his  suit  could  not  conceal  the  fact  that  it  was  dis- 
tinctly of  a  cotton  mixture.  His  collar  was  somewhat 
frayed.  The  tie  had  nothing  of  that  texture  which  goes 
with  a  generous  expenditure.  And  his  hat  was  one  of  the 
cheap,  vulgar  brood  which  is  turned  out  by  a  manufac- 
turer in  hundred  thousand  lots  for  all  comers. 


1 


Despite  the  prophecies,  then,  Cox  had  not  succeeded 
in  a  big  way.  He  who  was  to  travel  in  seven-league 
boots  to  the  Land  of  Success  was  shod  in  the  rather 
flimsy  leather  of  the  cheap  shoestore.  What  had  hap- 
pened? 

My  curiosity  was  now  too  much  for  me.    I  spoke  up. 

"Well,  Cox,  it's  been  a  long  time  since  we  put  it  over 
the  professors !" 

He  was  warm  in  his  greeting,  and  immediately  wanted 
to  know  how  I  had  fared.  I  was  pleased  to  find  him  the 
same  unselfish  individual  whom  we  had  liked  even  in 
our  hours  of  most  intense  student  rivalry. 

I  quickly  swung  the  talk  in  his  direction.  "In  business 
for  yourself?"  I  asked. 

"Not  just  now,"  he  said.  But  it  appeared  that  at  one 
time  or  another  he  had  ventured  out  on  his  own  hook. 
He  had  tried  publishing  books,  because  that  seemed  a 
dignified  pursuit,  and  because  he  loved  the  association 
of  books.  But  the  cheap,  shoddy,  illegitimate  offsprings 
of  whirling  presses  soon  lost  interest  for  him. 

"When  I  found  there  wasn't  enough  money  in  it,  there 
was  no  use  keeping  it  up,"  he  explained.  "There  was 
nothing  to  compensate  me  for  my  loss  of  self-respect." 

The  book  business,  however,  showed  him  the  possi- 
bilities of  mail-order  selling.  In  this  he  embarked  with 
another  man  who  put  a  whole  life's  savings  into  it.  They 
tried  to  market  numberless  things. 

"We  worked  day  and  night,"  he  said.  "In  fact,  we 
almost  worked  ourselves  to  death.  We  consumed  enough 
brains  and  enough  muscle  to  have  kept  a  business  five 
hundred  times  that  size  on  the  go  if  we'd  only  had  the 
capital.  But  we  couldn't  compete  with  the  fellows  who 
had  twenty  years'  start  of  us." 

After  that,  not  at  all  discouraged,  he  concentrated  on 
salesmanship :  "The  scientific  kind.  None  of  this  half- 
baked  conversation  by  which  nine-tenths  of  the  solicitors 
prod  some  business  out  of  a  harrassed  man." 

2 


He  went  after  the  jobbing  trade  up  and  down  the 
country  with  an  important  office  specialty.  He  had  come 
across  this  particular  article  in  his  mail-order  work. 

"Curious,"  he  commented,  "how  almost  all  the  things 
I  have  done  dovetail  into  each  other!"  And  he  laughed 
pleasantly,  as  if  the  past  sat  lightly  on  him. 

He  made  some  money  this  time — at  least  enough  on 
which  to  marry;  and,  to  use  his  own  words,  he  "settled 
down." 

"Lost  nothing  in  getting  around  the  country,"  he  re- 
marked with  enthusiasm.  "I  got  to  believing  more  than 
ever  in  our  little  U.  S.  A.  Its  vastness  spelt  OPPOR- 
TUNITY with  capital  letters.  It  seemed  to  have  the 
sort  of  message  I  needed.  I  tell  you,  it  made  me  proud 
to  be  an  American !  The  inspiration  I  derived  helped  me 
get  rid  of  the  critical  feeling  I  was  beginning  to  have 
about  business  conditions.  I  kicked  out  that  pessimistic 
stuff  once  for  all  1" 

In  his  settling  down  period  he  made  a  bid  for  a  sales- 
managership.  His  experience,  personality  and  confidence 
counted — and  he  was  put  in  charge  of  a  big  office. 

A  new  brand  of  silverware  for  the  table  was  being 
marketed,  backed  by  a  big  advertising  campaign  in  the 
women's  magazines.  Salesmen  were  to  go  after  the  deal- 
ers, and  to  see  that  they  were  properly  stocked  up.  Cox 
was  to  take  the  salesmen  in  hand,  haggle  with  them 
about  their  commissions,  teach  them  the  tricks  of  the 
trade,  inspire  them,  route  them,  send  them  off,  study 
their  reports,  and  get  rid  of  those  who  fell  down  in  their 
volume  of  business. 

"The  best  salary  I  got  up  to  that  time !"  he  said,  in 
his  straight-forward  manner. 

"The  business  went  like  a  house  afire  at  first,"  he  nar- 
rated, "but  pretty  soon  there  was  a  fly  in  the  ointment — 
or  rather,  too  much  basemetal  under  the  silver  and  not 
enough  silver  plating.  They  had  been  over-watering  the 
stock  to  allow  some  insider  to  clean  up.  The  financial 
strain  on  top  of  the  bad  name  which  the  ware  was  get- 
ting in  the  trade  busted  things  up. 


"I  tried  to  save  some  of  the  pieces  by  suggesting  that 
they  reorganize  on  a  more  honest  basis ;  but  they  prac- 
tically told  me  that  I  was  butting  in.  It  wasn't  long, 
therefore,  before  I  'butted  out.'  " 

He  mused  silently  for  a  minute  as  if  reliving  that  par- 
ticular business  experience.  Then  he  apologized  for  talk- 
ing about  himself,  but  I  insisted  that  he  go  on. 

"Oh,  there  is  very  little  more  to  tell,"  he  said.  "That 
was  the  year  when  I  felt  my  best.  I  saw  the  magic  pos- 
sibilities of  commercial  enterprise.  I  realized  that  all 
one  needed  for  a  proper  leverage  on  things  was  intelli- 
gence.   Given  that,  )^ou  were  master  of  the  situation ! 

"The  raw  materials  are  here  aplenty;  the  machinery  is 
waiting  for  guidance ;  investors  have  but  to  be  told.  It  is 
merely  up  to  you  to  so  organize  yourself  and  your  abilities 
as  to  dominate  these  essentials. 

"That  sales-managership  was  a  liberal  education.  I  was 
ready  for  the  next  step.  There's  romance  in  machinery, 
and  I  w^as  tickled  to  death  to  get  hold  of  the  manage- 
ment of  an  office  selling  gasoline  engines  for  various  pur- 
poses. Of  course,  I've  only  got  a  strip  of  territory  to 
supervise,  but  I  am  making  it  productive. 

"Machinery  is  the  sort  of  merchandise  you  can  have 
a  lot  of  respect  for.  You  do  your  work  with  real  interest 
because  you're  really  helping  production.  Sounds  en- 
thusiastic, I  know. 

"I'm  studying  mechanics,  too.  And  learning  how  to 
improve  my  office  organization.  Ultimately  I  shall  take 
that  particular  engine  and  other  machinery  to  the  four 
corners  of  the  world.  There's  the  bigger  job  I'm  dream- 
ing about ! — to  carry  the  American  flag  over  the  seven 
seas  in  behalf  of  American  products !" 

Then  he  was  a  little  quiet,  as  if  somewhat  shy  after 
this  frank  bit  of  personal  history.  I  talked  about  college 
days,  and  we  chuckled  reminiscently  about  the  failings 
of  the  solemn  professors  who  had  taken  themselves  so 
seriously. 

When  we  parted,  Cox  insisted  that  I  look  him  up,  and 

4 


gave  me  his  card.  He  walked  out  of  the  front  door  of 
the  car  with  head  erect,  shoulders  thrown  back,  jaunty 
step,  and  altogether  conveying  a  sense  of  youth  and  vigor 
which  brought  back  vividly  the  undergraduate  of  twelve 
years  before. 

I  wondered.  Thirty-three,  and  still  fighting  for  a  vant- 
age point  in  the  business  world !  What  had  been  the 
trouble  with  this  undoubtedly  able  man?  Had  he  been 
following  wrong  leads?  Or  was  it  lack  of  money?  Or 
both? 

Here  was  intelligence,  dogged  ambition  and  devotion 
to  the  one  ideal  of  business.  Yet  he  was  far  from  the 
leadership  which  we  had  prophecied  for  him. 

Still,  he  did  not  in  the  least  convey  the  impression  that 
he  was  a  defeated  man.  According  to  his  own  estimate 
he  was  making  progress,  with  victory  just  around  the 
corner.  And  he  was  not  going  to  be  satisfied  with  a 
mediocre  prize — that  was  indicated  by  the  way  in  which 
he  regarded  the  preliminary  steps. 

When  finally  he  would  enter  the  throne  room  of  Big 
Business,  would  it  be  as  a  heroic  figure,  or  would  he  be 
apologetic,  beaten,  humbled  and  a  nonentity? 

I  was  not  to  know  the  answer  for  four  years. 


EPISODE  II 


IN  WHICH  OUR  HERO  DOES  THE 
UNEXPECTED. 


This  time  George  Cox  was  sitting  in  a  corner  of  a 
"tea-room"  where  the  height  of  refinement  is  reached  by 
multiplying  the  number  of  dishes  so  as  to  overcome  the 
difficulty  of  not  putting  enough  food  on  any  one  dish. 
It  was  one  of  the  many  typical  eating  places  to  which 
small  salaried  men  went  to  escape  the  uproar  of  large 
food-shops. 


If  I  was  surprised  to  find  Cox  there,  I  gave  no  sign 
of  it,  and  took  him  very  much  for  granted.  He,  on  his 
part,  upbraided  me  for  not  having  hunted  him  up  in  the 
long  interval. 

He  looked  distinctly  older,  yet  his  air  betokened  no 
abatement  of  his  old-time  confidence,  even  though  his 
appearance  did  not  indicate  any  floodtide  of  prosperity. 
I  could  not  help  expecting  that  he  would  speedily  offer 
some  explanation  of  why  he  had  not  climbed  up  into  the 
tower  of  Success  and  rung  the  bell  of  "I." 

He  made  neither  explanation  nor  apology.  Instead,  in 
reply  to  my  question  as  to  how  he  was  getting  on,  he 
said:  "Oh,  very  much  like  a  few  million  other  people,  I 
guess." 

I  was  so  aghast  to  see  him  come  tumbling  down  from 
the  heights  where  I  had  always  placed  him,  that  I  almost 
stammered  as  I  gave  my  order  to  the  aenemic  waitress 
hanging  over  the  table. 

Finally  I  managed  to  ask  casually,  "Still  in  the  ma- 
chinery business?" 

He  was ;  and  he  went  on  to  say  that  he  expected  to  be 
in  it  for  a  long  time  to  come. 

"I  had  some  big  plans  when  I  saw  you  last,  didn't  I? 
Let's  see :  that  was  about  four  years  ago.  If  I  remember, 
I  was  talking  very  much  like  a  hero  in  the  Saturday  Eve- 
ning Post.  Well,  just  after  I  saw  you  I  tried  one  more 
adventure  in  business. 

"That  time  I  came  near  landing  the  big  prize.  I  got 
a  fellow  with  some  real,  honest-to-goodness  capital  to 
join  me  in  an  export  venture.  We  were  to-  be  sole  sell- 
ing agents  for  several  machinery  concerns.  Everything 
looked  rosy.  But  the  fellows  at  the  other  end  in  Europe 
and  South  America  were  long  on  promises  and  short  on 
performance.  Their  orders  came  through  quickly  enough 
but  the  banks  were  inclined  to  shy  at  them. 

"My  partner  decided  to  make  a  trip  of  investigation. 
He  finished  by  staying  abroad  and  telling  me  to  wind 
things  up — the  partnership  seemed  no  longer  to  be  es- 


sential  to  his  plans.  I  tried  to  tell  him  in  a  letter  what  I 
thought  of  him,  but  the  letter  got  too  long,  so  I  decided 
not  to  send  it." 

Cox  laughed,  not  at  all  ill-humoredly. 

"That's  not  the  way  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  hero 
winds  up.  Nor  does  he  go  back  to  his  old  job  and  eat 
humble-pie,  as  I  did.  They  took  me  back  because  they 
knew  that  I  was  a  reliable  salesman." 

He  ate  microscopic  sections  out  of  his  sparse  portion 
of  dessert,  like  a  child  that  wishes  its  favorite  dish  to 
last.  Suddenly,  as  if  conscious  of  the  questions  I  was 
leaving  unasked,  he  laid  down  his  spoon,  and  said  with 
extended  linger : 

"Don't  think  that  I  don't  realize  that  according  to  cer- 
tain standards  I'm  only  a  'near-success.'  The  class  proph- 
ecy which  foretold  how  I  was  going  to  keep  a  billion 
dollar  corporation  on  the  tracks  and  give  orders  to  Wash- 
ington, sounds  like  a  schoolboy's  joke,  doesn't  it?  I'm 
not  so  sure  now  that  I  couldn't  go  it  big  yet  if  I  drained 
all  the  decency  out  of  my  soul  and  the  blood  out  of  my 
body ;  and  the  ghost  that  would  be  left  of  me  would  get 
a  fine  obituary  notice  in  the  Journal  of  Commerce." 

After  a  pause  he  went  on  quietly : 

*T  am  through  chasing  the  great  god  Success.  While 
I'm  on  the  lookout  for  more  salary,  I've  reached  a  point 
where  I  begin  to  see  that  there's  no  use  trying  to  break 
out  of  the  corral.    I  am  willing  to  call  it  a  day's  work. 

"Everytime  I  tried  to  become  a  Napoleon  of  Business, 
I  ate  up  my  little  reserve  stock  of  cash.  And  when  you've 
been  through  the  experience  of  wondering  whether  there 
is  going  to  be  food  for  the  wife  and  the  children  next 
week,  the  game  of  trying  to  pull  yourself  up  by  your 
bootstraps  ceases  to  be  fascinating." 

I  asked  whether  this  didn't  imply  a  philosophy  of 
despair,  and  whether  it  wouldn't  make  an  unhappy  man 
of  him.     He  shook  his  head  vigorously. 

"Don't  you  believe  it  for  a  moment !"  he  said.  "A  man 
is  never  so  good  a  fighter  as  when  he  knows  just  what 


he's  up  against.  Once  you  stop  nursing  dreams  and 
come  down  to  earth,  you're  in  a  position  to  be  of  greater 
use  to  yourself  and  the  next  fellow. 

"For  the  fact  is,  I've  discovered  that  I'm  one  of  the 
vast  army  of  salaried  men  who  are  the  victims  of  a  care- 
fully worked  up  lie.  That  sounds  pretty  strong;  but  I 
happened  to  have  stepped  behind  the  scenes.  I  know 
how  the  fake  scenic  effects  are  obtained,  and  what  the 
deceiving  footlights  do,  and  how  the  sentimental  lines  are 
written  to  sugar-coat  the  real  thing." 

When  I  suggested  that  he  had  gone  pretty  far  since  I 
saw  him  last,  he  said : 

"A  man  who  has  been  through  hell  has  a  right  to  a 
change  of  viewpoint.  When  you've  seen  the  wolf  sniff- 
ing around  the  door  of  your  home,  you  are  going  to  stop 
believing  nonsense.  There's  no  glamor  then  in  being  a 
private  in  the  army  of  General  Bunk,  in  the  hope  of  be- 
ing a  captain  sometime." 

His  jaw  fairly  snapped  as  he  exclaimed,  "I'm  not  apolo- 
gizing for  anything !  That's  not  my  way !  You're  seeing 
a  man  v/ho  is  one  hundred  percent  alive.  I  simply  no 
longer  believe  that  every  member  of  the  salaried  class  has 
a  chance  to  become  a  captain  of  industry.  On  the  con- 
trary, I  believe  that  the  salaried  class  is  one  of  the  most 
tragically  helpless  sections  of  society,  and  I  believe  that 
its  suffering  is  due  to  the  fact  that  it  thinks  itself  part 
of  the  middle  class !" 

He  shook  his  head  angrily  because  of  the  thoughts  this 
evoked,  tie  tried  to  keep  down  his  indignation  as  he 
said: 

"Just  look  about  you !  Study  us  as  we  crow'd  into  of- 
fices and  stores,  and  hurry  to  work,  and  to  lunch,  and 
to  work  again,  and  finally  crawl  back  home.  Some  of 
us  think  we  are  important  to  the  progress  of  civilization, 
but  most  of  us  buried  our  hopes  long  ago. 

"Only  brutal  irony  could  lead  one  to  preach  the  Sim- 
ple Life  to  salaried  workers — offsprings  of  a  hope  and 
a  wish ! 

"On  the  dyspeptic  pay  envelope  which   the  salaried 

8 


class  gets,  it  has  to  see  first  of  all  that  it  dresses  decently, 
with  the  result  that  many  a  pinched,  hungry  stomach 
makes  insulting  remarks  under  a  respectable  garb. 

"Decent  looking  clothes  are  essential,  for  the  employer 
who  may  not  pay  us  enough  to  live  decently  would  feel 
insulted  if  we  exhibited  shabby  clothes.  If  we  dressed 
like  workmen,  we  would  lose  caste  at  once. 

"And  because  ours  are  the  wives  of  salaried  men  and 
not  of  workmen,  the  cruel  joke  is  carried  still  further. 
They  must  wear  clothes  in  keeping  with  their  'station.' 
And,  of  course,  the  children  must  help  to  carry  on  the 
cruel  fiction  of  a  comfortable  salary,  even  though  many 
a  little  body  suffers  from  malnutrition. 

"Don't  forget,  too,  that  the  salaried  class  is  the  con- 
sumer of  cheap  products — cotton  in  clothing  where  there 
should  be  warm,  cold-resisting  wool,  foods  devoid  of  real 
nutriment,  household  furnishings  which  go  to  pieces 
rapidly." 

Cox  was  bitter  as  he  proceeded  with  the  indictment. 

"Unfortunately  the  salaried  have  come  in  contact  with 
'nice'  things — like  books,  and  pictures,  and  music.  Hav- 
ing acquired  a  'hankering'  for  the  better  things  of  life, 
they  dream  of  little  Anna  and  Jack  going  through  high 
school  and  perhaps  through  college.  Devoted  lives  are 
sacrificed  that  some  fraction  of  the  next  generation  may 
get  advanced  schooling.  The  soldier  in  battle  sometimes 
sees  the  victory  Avon  before  he  dies ;  but  many  are  the 
homes  where  the  father  and  mother  fight  a  losing  fight, 
and  with  seared  souls  finally  watch  the  growing  children 
drift  off  to  jobs  to  help  supplement  the  family  income. 

"To  make  matters  worse,  most  of  these  children  are 
thrown  into  businesses  for  which  they  have  absolutely  no 
aptitude.  In  consequence,  they  either  move  lifelessly  in 
the  groove  in  which  they  find  themselves,  or  drift  from 
position  to  position.  The  accident  which  flings  the  aver- 
age human  being  into  a  business  or  profession  is  one  of 
the  tragedies  of  an  age  which  lays  claim  to  ef^ciency. 
But  why  should  society  care?  The  salaried  man  and 
woman  are  cheap,  and  with  all  their  defects,  get  through 


their  five  and  a  half  day  stunt  with  a  definite  balance  of 
profit  to  the  firm.  So  what  does  the  human  wasteage 
matter? 

"And  when  the  'salaried'  working  children  become 
'salaried'  adults,  what  do  you  find?  Many  of  them  post- 
pone marriage  as  long  as  possible,  fearful  lest  their 
meagre  earnings  will  result  in  positive  want.  Heaven 
alone  knows  what  sort  of  sex  life  the  men  live.  And  the 
young  women  grow  into  listless  types  that  surrender  al- 
most without  a  struggle  the  instinct  of  home-making." 

The  little  restaurant  was  fast  emptying,  and  George 
Cox  could  sit  back  and  speak  without  being  overheard 
by  those  who  represented  the  class  he  was  discussing. 
He  spoke  quietly,  and  with  a  fixed  look  ahead  as  if  watch- 
ing a  line  of  people  filing  past. 

"Some  don't  give  in  without  a  struggle.  In  fact,  so 
many  fight  against  the  innumerable  obstacles  to  belter 
their  position,  that  it  explains  the  self-delusion  of  the 
salaried  class  about  their  opportunities.  Prodded  on  by 
hope,  they  burn  the  candle  at  both  ends — tiring  work 
during  the  day,  more  frightfully  tiring  study  at  night.  If 
it  were  not  futile,  it  would  challenge  admiration. 

"At  best,  some  of  these  climb  up  a  bit  to  a  few  more 
dollars,  or  to  a  higher  sounding  occupational  name.  But 
the  success  of  the  night  student  is  not  universal,  despite 
the  alluring  claims  of  the  correspondence  school  adver- 
tisement. There  are  too  many  competitors  for  the  same 
job,  and  most  of  the  big  jobs  up  top  are  held  by  the 
favored  friends  of  stockholders,  or  by  their  sons,  or  by 
other  relatives. 

"But  the  time  comes  in  the  life  of  the  salaried  man, 
graduate  of  night  study  or  not,  when  he  comes  to  grips 
with  actuality — the  day  he  asks  once  too  often  for  a 
'raise.'   That  is  the  dramatic  point! 

"If  you  watch  what  occurs  then,  you've  got  the  key- 
note of  the  whole  situation.  The  earlier  requests  have 
been  more  or  less  grudgingly  allowed — our  applicant 
most  likely  has  been  much  underpaid.  But  now  we've 
reached  a  point  when  the  employer  refuses  to  grant  a 

10 


raise,  for  he  knows  that  he  can  go  into  the  open  market 
and  buy  ability  at  a  'better'  price  than  is  asked. 

"He  expresses  astonishment  that  the  man  before  him 
cannot  see  that  he  is  getting  as  much  as  the  firm  can 
afford  to  pay  anyone  in  his  position.  Or  he  takes  time 
to  point  out  a  number  of  deficiencies  in  the  employe's 
work.  Or  he  pleads  business  stagnation,  or  bewails  his 
large  overhead  expenses.  If  he  has  grown  to  like  the 
dogged  loyalty  of  the  petitioner,  he  promises  that  per- 
haps at  some  future  time  he  will  do  something.  But  why 
rehearse  any  further  the  ancient  tale? 

"That's  about  the  last  interview  for  a  better  salary. 
By  this  time  the  employe  has  in  all  likelihood  made  up 
his  mind  that  he  can  improve  his  lot  and  his  income 
by  going  elsewhere.  So  he  secretly  begins  to  answer 
'Want'  advertisements,  and  risks  a  few  dollars  to  break 
into  the  'Situation  Wanted'  column,  where  he  rehearses 
his  long  experience  in  a  few  lines.  The  results  are  a 
revelation  to  him !  The  proffers  of  salary  are  well  within 
the  limits  of  that  which  he  is  drawing.  Of  course,  prom- 
ises are  held  out  that  'Hard  work  will  be  rewarded  by 
advancement,'  whatever  that  can  mean  to  a  man  to  whom 
his  position  has  been  a  treadmill. 

"Another  thing  that  the  seeker  after  opportunity  finds 
is  that  employers  have  a  mania  for  the  services  of  young 
people.  In  fields  where  experience  should  be  at  a  pre- 
mium, the  bait  of  'advancement'  is  dangled  before  im- 
mature minds.  It  would  seem  that  there  are  countless 
employers  with  the  ready  gift  of  pouring  wisdom  and 
information  into  the  mental  bungholes  of  youth. 

"It  is  impossible  for  older  salaried  men  to  warn  the 
youthful  applicant  who  snaps  at  this  bait,  or  to  make 
him  stand  out  for  a  higher  salary.  That's  where  the 
organized  wage  worker  has  the  advantage.  The  unions 
long  ago  discovered  that  younger  blood  is  brought  in  by 
the  employer  primarily  to  keep  down  wages ;  and  the 
wage  worker  has  successfully  fought  this.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  one  of  the  big  factors  in  keeping  salaries  at  a 
low  figure  is  the  reserve  army  of  youth. 

11 


"Taking-  everything-  into  consideration,  do  you  v\  oiuicr, 
as  you  study  the  faces  of  the  salaried  men  and  Avomcn 
going  to  work,  that  there  isn't  the  'snap'  one  would  ex- 
pect in  such  an  important  element  in  industry  and  busi- 
ness? They  look  as  if  they  w^ere  driven  by  an  invisible 
lash.  Or  if  fear  and  worry  are  not  apparent,  you  are  met 
instead  by  listless,  dull  countenances,  the  aspect  of  men 
who  are  defeated  before  they  have  made  a  start. 

"They  are  heartily  sick  of  their  positions,  except  at  mo- 
ments when  they  compare  their  lot  with  that  of  someone 
a  degree  lower  in  the  scale.  The}'-  detest  their  fellow- 
workers.  The  office  frequently  becomes  a  place  where 
one  employe  tyrannizes  over  another ;  and  there  is  sharp 
criticism,  and  snarling,  and  back  biting,  and  rampant  un- 
happiness. 

"It  is  into  this  atmosphere  that  *Tom'  and  'Dick'  and 
'Mary'  come  out  of  the  public  school  to  start  a  career — 
children  who  could  have  stood  at  least  four  or  five  years 
more  of  education — immature  minds  indiscriminately 
gulped  down  by  big  business  and  small  business,  to  float 
along  in  undigested  fashion  in  the  sorry  stream  of  life. 

"In  view  of  all  this,  while  wage-workers  are  winning 
fight  after  fight  for  shorter  hours  and  more  pa}'-,  is  the 
salaried  man  to  continue  to  live  on  the  pay  scale  of  yes- 
terday, and  to  shrink  from  any  form  of  protest?  And  if 
the  climbing  wage  represents  organized  power,  and  the 
dwindling  salary  the  helplessness  of  timid,  loose  atoms 
competing  for  jobs,  is  the  answer  organization?" 

Cox  shook  his  head  even  as  he  asked  this.  "It  can't 
be  done,  except  in  isolated  instances.  The  salaried  do  not 
as  a  rule  work  in  large  groups.  In  addition,  there  are 
hundreds  of  demarcations  because  of  the  different  types 
of  business  involved.  There  can  be  no  real  coherence. 
There-  would  only  be  fear.  No ;  real  solidarity  is  out  of 
the   question. 

"But  if  this  helpless  section  of  human  society  can't 
organize,  what  in  God's  name  can  it  do  to  make  it  de- 
cently assertive?  How  can  it  fight  to  force  action,  to 
bring  about  a  loosening  of  the  awful  pressure  that  is 

crushing  it?" 

12 


George  Cox  looked  sharply  at  ine  to  see  if  I  would  be 
willing  to  go  farther  with  him,  now  that  he  had  gone  so 
far.  Then  he  glanced  about  as  if  the  thing  of  which  he 
wished  to  speak  might  be  too  much  for  the  sensibilities 
of  the  pale  waitresses  and  the  solitary  hangovers  of  the 
noon-meal  crowd. 

He  leaned  forward,  and  spoke  with  the  precision  and 
force  of  the  practiced  orator.  He  spoke  with  the  ease  of 
one  who  has  long  rounded  into  form  the  thoughts  which 
he  had  been  secretly  nursing..  His  conviction  had  the 
earnestness  of  religious  fervour. 

"I  got  an  answer  to  my  question,"  he  declared.  "But  not 
the  sort  of  answer  the  salaried  man  gets  from  the  press 
controlled  by  the  employing  class.  For  let  me  tell  you, 
that  press  is  a  source  of  -misinformation  it  behooves  every 
lover  of  personal  liberty  to  be  on  his  guard  against !  It  is 
being  used  to  keep  the  salaried  men  divided,  and  right 
nov,'  i3  fomenting  discord  between  them  and  the  wage- 
workers. 

"I  got  my  answer  from  an  occupant  of  a  Pullman 
smoker  going  West.  We  were  alone  except  for  a  cattle- 
man who  v/as  dozing  in  a  corner,  having  gotten  tired  of 
the  landscape. 

"My  companion  told  me  that  he  was  on  his  way  into 
the  Northwest  to  help  organize  the  farmers  into  an  in- 
dependent political  body  which  would  seek  to  wrest  con- 
trol from  the  two  old  political  parties.  The  farmers  had 
borne  shameless  betrayal  by  these  parties  year  after 
year,  but  at  last  they  were  going  to  take  their  destinies 
into  their  own  hands. 

"I  was  rather  startled  by  the  picture  he  drew  of  what 
the  farmer  had  to  contend  with,  of  the  conspiracies  engin- 
eered against  him  by  the  interests  which  controlled  the 
banks  and  the  grain  elevators  and  the  shipments  to  dis- 
tant markets  and  the  prices  paid  for  farm  products.  1 
had  always  believed  that  my  country  stood  for  fair  play 
to  the  men  who  till  the  soil.  But  I  saw  that  a  species  of 
pawnbroking  was  keeping  tens  of  thousands  of  them 
virtually  in  a  state  of  slavery. 

13 


"As  he  described  the  helplessness  of  these  people  and 
the  way  they  had  been  divided  into  various  political 
camps  to  keep  them  from  thinking  and  acting  as  a  group, 
it  came  to  me  like  a  flash  that  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses he  was  talking  about  the  salaried  class. 

"But  he  was  talking  organization!  How  could  the 
countless  occupants  of  offices  and  stores  organize  po- 
litically? How  could  they  find  the  courage  to  come  out 
into  the  open  and  through  formidable  protest  better  their 
conditions  ?  It  would  be  individual  suicide,  pure  and  simple ! 

"As  I  continued  to  listen,  a  way  out  did  present  itself. 
But  I  had  first  to  realize  that  the  governing  of  our  great 
democratic  nation  of  which  I  had  so  long  boasted  was  being 
done  by  hand-picked  agents  of  Big  Business — that  Big 
Business  was  concerned  with  the  running  of  it,  because 
politics  is  an  expression  of  what  is  going  on  industrially. 

"As  long  as  the  industrial  heads  dictated  political 
policies,  they  could  dictate  working  conditions,  and  so 
protect  their  own  economic  interests  in  every  detail.  And 
therefore  only  when  the  control  of  the  nation  was  wrested 
from  them  politically  by  the  salaried  and  working  classes 
would  the  latter  come  out  of  the  industrial  jungle  of  want 
and  frustration. 

"A  state  democratically  so  controlled  would  help  shape 
the  life  of  every  human  being  in  it,  would  ensure  to  every 
child  brought  into  this  world  the  maximum  of  education, 
and  of  training  in  productive  citizenship ;  it  would  pro- 
vide in  return  for  work  a  good  home,  nourishing  food, 
good  clothes  and  proper  recreation.  It  would,  in  other 
words,  be  an  efficient  expression  of  the  aspirations  and 
hopes  of  the  brain  and  hand  workers  of  the  nation. 

"Of  course  I  shied  violently  at  the  word  Socialism.  I 
opposed  it  because  it  was  a  working-class  movement; 
and  my  fellow  traveller  rejoined  that  the  sooner  the  sal- 
aried man  took  his  stand  with  the  manual  worker,  the 
better  for  both,  because  there  were  enough  benefits  to 
go  around,  whereas  lack  of  unity  might  in  the  end  de- 
stroy the  freedom  and  opportunities  of  both. 

"I  objected  that  Socialism  aroused  class  antagonisms; 

14 


to  which  the  reply  was  that  Socialism  could  not  create 
that  which  had  always  existed.  The  owning  class  and 
working  class  were  already  lined  up  for  the  fray,  and 
the  salaried  man  in  mistaking  the  class  to  which  he  be- 
longed was  suffering  in  the  collision  of  interests. 

"I  said  that  if  the  brain  and  manual  workers  took  over 
industry  and  business,  they  would  make  a  mess  of  it;  and 
I  was  asked  whether  a  dreadful  mess  hadn't  already  been 
made  by  the  powers  that  be,  and  whether  there  weren't 
enough  intelligent  men  among  our  hundred  million  who 
if  working  in  behalf  of  their  fellows  could  not  do  better 
than  the  several  thousand  industrial  over-lords  who 
through  their  brutal  indifference  made  life  a  nightmare 
for  the  greater  portion  of  humanity. 

"I  argued  that  radicalism  stood  for  revolution.  My 
companion  told  me  that  a  silent  industrial  revolution  was 
already  in  progress,  if  only  I  could  understand  what  was 
going  on  about  me;  and  that  all  that  the  radical  did  was  to 
educate  the  masses  to  the  possibilities  of  the  change, 
just  as  our  revolutionary  forefathers  educated  the  Ameri- 
can colonists  in  the  principles  of  self-government.  A 
revolution  did  not  necessarily  mean  violence,  except 
when  those  who  stood  for  the  old  order  used  violence 
to  prevent  change.  And  as  a  rule  they  did  use  it,  cun- 
ningly, under  the  guise  of  patriotism,  and  even  of  re- 
ligion. Only  when  the  masses  could  properly  interpret 
and  intelligently  help  shape  the  silent  revolution  in  busi- 
ness and  industry,  would  they  arrive  at  their  purpose 
efficiently. 

"This  organizer  made  considerable  use  of  that  word 
'efficiency.'  He  believed  the  American  people  needed  a 
great  deal  of  education  in  organized,  collective  effort, 
and  thought  it  would  fall  to  the  technically  and  profes- 
sionally trained  men  among  the  radicals  to  rear  an  effic- 
ient society  in  the  place  of  the  one  that  was  going  to  pieces, 

"I  fought  my  train  companion  bitterly,  bringing  to 
bear  every  anti-Socialist  argument  I  had  ever  heard.  He 
finally  asked,  'Do  you  realize  that  all  that  you  have  said 
has  really  been  put  into  your  mouth  by  those  who  con- 
trol public  opinion?     Have  you  ever  stopped  to  think 

15 


what  you  would  lose  by  a  change  in  the  ownership  of  in- 
dustry in  this  country?  Do  these  powerful  business- 
controlling  factors  really  care  about  the  happiness  of  the 
nation?  Would  they  voluntarily  surrender  a  tithe  of 
their  incomes?  No!  They  want  dividends!  dividends! 
and  still  more  dividends !  And  at  the  other  end  of  the 
scale  are  millions  of  human  beings  who  more  or  less 
abjectly  ask  :  *0,  give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread  !'  " 

"I  demanded  to  know  how  Socialism  would  help  the 
salaried  man.  He  explained  that  only  when  these  sal- 
aried men  would  have  a  share  in  the  control  of  this 
country's  business  would  their  lot  be  bettered,  for  such 
a  share  would  give  them  the  opportunity  to  dictate  earn- 
ings, working  conditions  and  living  conditions.  This 
would  arise  from  the  fact  that  industry  would  be  op- 
erated for  the  benefit  of  those  actually  engaged  in  it. 

"I  had  never  before  conceived  of  business  and  indus- 
try being  run  for  the  general  good  rather  than  for  per- 
sonal profit.  Heretofore,  the  world  had  been  to  me  a 
mixture  of  all  sorts  of  classes  whose  interests  could  not 
really  conflict.  Now  I  saw  two  antagonistic  groups — 
those  who  owned  industry  and  allowed  it  to  operate  only 
as  long  as  it  was  profitable,  and  those  who  were  literally  the 
serfs  of  this  holding-group.  The  fact  that  the  salaried 
man  did  not  wear  overalls  and  carry  a  dinner-pail  no 
longer  created  confusion  in  my  mind.  He,  too,  was  one 
of  those  who  did  not  own  his  job,  but  whose  job  owned 
him! 

"And  because  the  owning  groups,  or  holding  groups, 
ran  business  and  industry  for  profit  only,  I  began  to  see 
why  in  a  nation  rich  in  machinery  and  natural  resources, 
and  plentifully  supplied  with  unskilled  labor  and  w^ith 
those  technically  trained  to  direct  labor,  there  could  be 
panics  and  depressions,  slums  and  underfed  human 
beings,  suicides  and  prostitution,  strikes,  lockouts,  boy- 
cotts, crowded  prisons  and  the  Potters'  Field.  And  there 
stood  out  the  damning  count  that  this  irresponsible  sys- 
tem of  ownership  carried  tyranny  with  it,  for  the  man 
who  owns  my  job  owns  me,  body  and  soul,  if  only  I  have 
the  intelligence  to  know  it !" 

16 


Cox  stopped.  His  face  was  almost  ecstatic.  He  leaned 
forward,  and  put  his  hand  on  my  shoulder  as  he  said : 

"Old  man,  there  are  times  when  we  are  lifted  out  of 
our  narrow  view  of  things  to  bigger  and  broader  con- 
ceptions. Sorrow  will  do  this  for  us,  as  when  someone 
we  deeply  love  goes  out  to  that  Great  Unknown  we  call 
Death.  Or  when  we  are  stirred  by  the  great  joy  of  look- 
ing at  our  first  born.  So  when  I  listened  to  this  man  who 
was  going  on  his  great  errand  of  education,  human  lives 
became  grand,  and  selfish  business  did  not  loont  quite  to 
advantage. 

"Heretofore  I  had  been  prone  to  blame  the  individual 
for  his  failure.  Having  worshipped  at  the  shrine  of  Com- 
mercial Success,  I  had  no  pity  for  those  who  fell  by  the 
wayside.  Now  I  saw  that  the  path  worn  by  the  pilgrims 
to  the  shrine  of  this  brutal  god  was  strewn  with  the 
bones  of  the  best  manhood  of  the  race.  And  I  also  saw 
that  those  who  finally  reached  the  shrine  alive  were  so 
blinded  and  worn  by  the  long  journey,  that  they  could 
no  longer  sympathize  with  the  dead  and  dying  along  the 
road. 

"Of  course  I  repeated  to  the  organizer  that  Socialism 
would  not  work — that  it  was  a  delightful  theory  at  best, 
and  nothing  more.  And  he  retorted  that  universal  suf- 
frage had  been  considered  just  that  by  supposedly  wise 
men.  Who  would  have  dreamt  five  hundred  years  ago 
that  a  nation  of  a  hundred  million  could  on  one  day  se- 
lect its  representatives,  and  that  these  would  gather  in 
one  place  to  enact  laws  for  those  whose  wishes  they  were 
supposed  to  voice?  As  my  friend  pointed  out,  about  the 
only  hard  thing  in  an  age  which  talks  without  wires,  and 
sails  under  the  sea,  and  sends  its  ships  into  the  clouds, 
and  weighs  the  stars — the  only  hard  thing  for  that  kind 
of  a  civilization  is  to  solve  the  problem  of  escaping  the 
uncertainities  of  a  tribal  existence. 

"In  the  midst  of  grain  elevators  bulging  with  food, 
man  dies  of  hunger;  and  supplied  with  whirring  looms, 
he  goes  without  adequate  covering  against  the  icy  blasts 
of  winter;  and  surrounded  by  the  products  of  the  best 
minds  of  three  thousand  years,  he  is  so  poorly  educated 
that  he  cannot  explain  the  simplest  natural  phenomena. 

17 


"But  if  the  salaried  man  cannot  organize,  what  part  can 
he  play  in  social  reconstruction?  If  he  is  to  demand  that 
the  state,  or  society,  or  the  nation,  is  to  do  something  for 
him,  how  is  he  to  make  that  demand  effective?  If  there  is 
any  group,  or  class,  whose  ownership  of  the  means  of  life 
keeps  him  under  its  heel,  how  is  he  to  escape  the  frightful 
pressure  ? 

"As  I  said  before,  to  openly  join  some  organization  for 
this  end  may  mean  starvation  for  the  salaried  man.  He 
hasn't  the  advantages  of  a  trades  unionist  with  fellow- 
workmen  to  back  him.  The  moment  his  employer  knew 
that  he  believed  in  a  thoroughgoing  democratization  of 
industry,  there  would  be  an  advertisement  in  the  'Help 
Wanted'  column  of  the  newspaper,  and  minus  the  neces- 
sary references  he  would  virtually  be  blacklisted. 

"Yet  he  can  register  his  protest,  and  a  mighty  protest ! — 
and  do  it  so  secretly,  so  quietly,  that  the  fall  of  a  snow- 
flake  alone  can  be  compared  with  it.  He  can  escape  his 
servility  and  strive  for  free  citizenship  hy  the  right  use  of 
the  ballot.  That  is  a  way  out  of  the  wilderness  into  which 
he  has  been  thrust. 

"While  he  is  dropping  into  the  ballot  box  that  bit  of  paper 
which  so  eloquently  expresses  his  demands  and  his  class 
consciousness,  tens  of  thousands  of  others  are  at  the  voting 
booths  for  the  same  sacred  purpose.  The  combined,  massed 
power  of  those  ballots,  backed  by  the  already  organized 
strength  of  the  nation's  wage-workers,  will  break  through 
the  chains  forged  by  industrial  despotism ! 

"The  remedy  is  so  simple  that  it  sounds  almost  impos- 
sible. Yet  let  us  understand  what  has  preceded  that  act  at 
the  voting  booth.  All  over  the  country  there  are  men  and 
women  who  openly  champion  the  taking  over  of  industry 
by  the  people.  They  have  their  programme — a  Socialist 
programme.  They  defend  the  issue  openly  despite  the  per- 
sonal sacrifices  it  entails  and  the  villification  to  which  they 
are  subjected.  They  state  clearly  the  undesirability  of  ex- 
isting conditions.  They  demand  a  scientific,  orderly  organ- 
ization of  business  and  industry  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
people  and  not  of  a  small  privileged  class  with  unlimited 

18 


power.    They  are  the  educators — and  their  number  is  grow- 
ing daily. 

"They  are  of  the  same  heroic  mould  as  the  men  who  won 
for  us  the  right  of  suffrage.  It  is  through  the  efforts  of 
agitators  like  these  that  the  ballot  has  managed  to  survive. 
And  in  the  period  of  the  American  revolution,  equally  brave 
men  wrote  that  wonderful  and  illuminating  rallying  cry 
into  the  Declaration  of  Independence  which  we  must  not 
forget :  'Whenever  any  form  of  government  becomes  de- 
structive to  these  ends  (life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  hap- 
piness) it  is  the  right  of  the  people  to  alter  or  abolish  it, 
and  to  institute  a  new  government,  laying  its  foundations  on 
such  principles  and  organizing  its  powers  in  such  form  as 
to  them  shall  seem  most  likely  to  eft'ect  their  safety  and 
happiness.' 

"That  is  good  Socialist  doctrine.  And  the  polling  booth 
is  the  logical  place  to  endeavor  to  put  into  effect  the  vital 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

"Of  course,  our  employers  want  none  of  this.  They  raise 
the  cry  that  if  affairs  were  run  solely  in  the  interests  of 
the  community,  civilization  would  be  wrecked.  If  they 
honestly  believed  that,  we  might  respect  their  opinion.  But 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  are  fearful  that  the  people  will 
successfully  manage  the  nation's  business ;  and  they  see  to  it 
that  their  subsidized  press  sneers  and  belittles  and  con- 
spires against  every  effort  and  experiment  at  Socialism 
elsewhere  in  the  world. 

"Why  shouldn't  the  industrial  overlords  be  worried? 
Right  down  in  their  hearts  they  know  business  would  be 
able  to  get  along  without  them.  They  don't  really  run  busi- 
ness themselves.  They  hire  brains  to  run  it  for  them.  When 
the  mental  and  manual  workers  really  take  over  the  man- 
agement of  industry,  the  experts  now  in  charge  will  be 
there  just  the  same,  just  as  ready  to  work  for  the  common 
weal  as  for  the  profit-hunting  private  owner.  And  all  the 
raw  material  will  be  there.  And  the  machinery.  And  the 
labor. 

"No,  we  can't  take  seriously  those  employers  who  keep 
talking  about  the  inefficiency  of  collective  effort.    They  are 

19 


in  reality  concerned  with  their  pocketbooks,  not  with  the 
well-being  of  their  fellow-men.  You  will  hear  some  of  them 
talk  about  spiritual  welfare.  They  lay  emphasis  on  this 
rather  than  on  physical  welfare,  because  the  risk  is  less. 
And  their  ministers  preach  sermons  from  the  pulpit  to 
the  salaried  class  on  contentment,  lest  discontent  hit  divi- 
dends. A  witty  economist  said  that  an  Englishman  would 
rather  give  up  the  whole  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  his  creed 
than  one-thirty-ninth  of  his  income. 

"Of  course,  that  day  when  you  look  out  on  the  world 
with  eyes  opened  to  the  facts,  when  you  contemplate  with 
hope  a  social  order  that  will  be  a  real  expression  of  your 
needs,  your  rejoicing  may  have  to  be  in  secret,  lest  your 
employer  mark  you  out  for  destruction.  But  you  are  not 
alone.  Hundreds  of  employers  of  salaried  men  and  women 
have  not  the  faintest  suspicion  that  those  in  their  oflkes 
who  w^ork  with  such  docility,  with  such  a  suppression  of 
individuality,  are  already  embued  with  the  new  hope  and 
vision,  and  are  giving  their  secret  aid  to  the  consummation 
of  the  greatest  ideal  ever  held  out  to  the  world  ! 

"No,  you  are  not  fighting  an  isolated  man's  fight !  On 
your  side  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  and  women 
who  have  awakened  to  the  delusion  of  'Government  by  Big 
Business.'  They  are  becoming  more  and  more  conscious  that 
their  protest  must  be  expressed  politically.  They  include 
tenant  farmers  who  have  been  veritable  serfs,  slaving  for 
absentee  landlords — and  their  number  is  legion !  They  in- 
clude wage-workers  who  are  not  fooled  by  increasing  wages 
which  never  catch  up  with  increasing  costs.  They  number 
architects  and  engineers  and  chemists  and  teachers  and  min- 
isters and  office  drudges  and  physicians  and  dentists  and  law 
clerks  and  new^spaper  men.  Every  vocation  is  represented 
in  this  army  of  protest,  for  every  line  of  activity  has  been 
kept  on  the  bare  edge  of  subsistence. 

"There  they  stand,  refusing  any  longer  to  be  'bluffed,' 
quick  to  see  through  the  fake  issues  which  divided  them 
in  the  past. 

"They  know  that  in  a  period  of  billion  dollar  corpora- 
tions and  interlocking  directorates,  their  own  ambitions  are 
but  chaff  in  the  wind.    Land?    Farming?    The  terrible  dis- 

20 


content  of  the  bulk  of  our  farmers  is  the  answer.  And  good 
land  has  never  been  so  high  in  the  history  of  this  country. 
The  professions?  Graduates  of  law  schools  are  clerking  for 
fifteen  dollars  a  week  in  law  offices.  Store-keeping?  Be- 
tween the  jobbers  or  the  commission  merchants  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  manufacturers  on  the  other,  little  is  left  for 
the  man  with  limited  capital  who  wishes  to  try  retailing, 

"So  the  disillusioned  millions  have  begun  to  group  them- 
selves for  the  great  political  contest  of  the  Have-nots  against 
the  Haves,  of  democracy  against  autocracy.  Just  because 
the  salaried  man  wears  clothes  which  bear  a  resemblance 
to  those  of  his  employer  rather  than  to  the  overalls  of  the 
wage-worker,  he  must  not  lose  his  sense  of  direction.  The 
employer  is  not  worrying  as  to  what  his  employee  is  going 
to  face  in  old  age.  The  moment  the  salaried  worker  can- 
not give  what  is  called  '100%  Service,'  into  the  discard 
he  will  go,  like  a  wornout  shoe ! 

"It  therefore  behooves  the  salaried  man,  as  he  faces  from 
week  to  week  the  drudgery,  the  fear  and  the  insufficiency 
of  his  existence,  to  think  fearlessly,  to  think  hard,  and  to 
ask  hard  questions.  He  must  shake  off  the  sentimental  no- 
tions and  the  illusions  on  which  he  has  been  fed  to  keep 
him  from  asking  those  questions.  Let  him  analyze  with  an 
eye  to  the  facts  all  the  loose  talk  about  'chances  to  make 
money.' 

"And  since  at  the  ballot  box  his  vote  is  equal  to  that  of 
his  employer,  he  must  be  as  jealous  of  the  opportunities 
it  presents  as  of  his  very  life.  He  should  pay  no  attention 
to  all  the  talk  of  putting  'good'  men  into  office.  There  are 
great  numbers  of  'good'  men  in  political  office  who  are  serv- 
ing the  interests  of  the  industrial  masters  without  being 
kept  awake  at  night  by  their  conscience. 

"At  first  when  these  politicians  and  their  overlords  see 
the  evidence  at  the  polls  of  revolting  citizenship,  of  a  rising 
tide  of  intelligent  protest,  they  will  try  to  frown  it  down, 
then  to  beat  it  down.  State  legislatures  and  the  Federal 
government  will  pass  laws  to  curb  freedom  of  public  expres- 
sion. The  newspapers  of  the  industrial  barons  will  resort 
to  the  most  contemptible  distortion  of  all  facts.  We  will 
see  attempts  to  undermine  personal  liberty  and  even  to  null- 

21 


ify  representative  government.     Police  power  will  be  in- 
voked.    No  weapon  will  be  overlooked  by  the  ruling  class. 

"But  this  desperation  can  avail  nothing.  Already  there 
are  signs  that  the  overlords  feel  that  the  old  order  is  un- 
stable. You  can  see  it  in  the  clumsy  way  in  which  they  are 
trying  to  soothe  the  discontented  while  still  insisting  on 
their  'pound  of  flesh' — on  their  everlasting  dividends  and 
profits.  There  is  further  proof  in  the  fact  that  the  issues 
presented  by  the  old  political  parties  are  becoming  more 
and  more  confused  and  meaningless.  No  real,  construc- 
tive programme  is  offered.  The  pretense  in  this  direction  is 
pretty  nearly  played  out. 

"It  is  little  wonder,  then,  that  the  masses  are  putting  for- 
ward leaders  of  their  own,  and  are  beginning  to  under- 
stand the  importance  of  a  clear-cut  political  and  industrial 
programme.  With  enough  men  in  Congress  and  in  the  vari- 
ous legislatures,  part  of  that  programme  can  be  worked  out 
at  once.  The  first  attack  will  be  to  put  taxation  where  it 
belongs — on  those  whose  stupendous  incomes  are  derived 
from  the  control  of  prices  on  necessities.  And  Big  Busi- 
ness will  not  be  allowed  to  shift  the  taxation  back  on  the 
people  through  higher  prices. 

"They  may  offer  compromises  in  the  hope  of  staving  off 
the  next  step.  That  next  step  in  Socialist  legislation  will 
be  a  hard  and  fast  control  of  prices.  This  virtually  also 
means  that  the  community  will  decide  what  the  earnings 
on  stocks  and  bonds  and  rentals  and  other  sources  of  income 
shall  be.  Once  you  have  gone  that  far,  once  the  industrial 
overlords  find  that  they  can  no  longer  gouge  huge  pi-ofits 
out  of  the  masses,  they  will  begin  to  talk  about  government 
ownership,  hoping  in  this  way  to  get  guaranteed  returns  for 
all  time  to  come — while  everybody  else  does  the  work, 

"That  flag  of  surrender  will  mark  the  beginning  of  the 
end.  We  will  be  very  close  to  the  permanent,  undivided 
possession  of  all  the  means  of  life  by  those  who  make  up 
the  salaried  and  wage-workers. 

"Mark  you,  only  when  we  have  clearly  decided  where  we 
stand  and  what  we  want,  will  these  things  begin  to  be.    If 

22 


■t 


we  grow  excited  about  minor  issues,  then  we  will  indeed 
swap  the  shadow  for  the  substance!  Think  how  often  the 
people  of  this  country  have  been  thrown  off  the  main  track 
by  talk  about  the  tariff,  and  about  free  silver,  and  about 
unworkable  anti-trust  laws,  and  about  the  virtues  and 
scholarships  of  this  candidate  and  the  unblemished  Ameri- 
canism of  that.  Meanwhile  we  have  been  candidates  for 
perpetual  worry,  and  have  not  failed  of  constant  reelection 
as  we  deposited  into  the  ballot  box  the  ballot  prepared  by 
those  who  were  riding  on  our  backs. 

"There  was  a  wise  student  of  social  conditions  who  wrote 
the  slogan,  'Workers  of  the  world,  unite !  You  have  but 
your  chains  to  lose !  You  have  a  world  to  gain !'  That 
should  certainly  be  rephrased  to  read,  "Salaried  men  of  the 
world,  protest !  You  have  but  your  chains  to  lose !  You  have 
a  world  to  gain !' — for  their  chains  bite  deeper,  and  they  get 
but  little  of  the  rich  bounty  of  the  world,  a  world  mag- 
nificently designed,  but  malignantly  ruled. 

"The  Salaried  Man,  the  twentieth  century's  worst  serf, 
is  the  big  balance  of  power  which  will  help  turn  the  tide 
for  human  freedom.  He  must  strive  for  self-respect  by 
refusing  to  be  deluded  and  hoodwinked.  He  must  force 
the  world  of  employers  to  awaken  to  the  fact  that  he  is  no 
longer  a  mere  pawn  on  the  economic  chessboard,  pushed 
helplessly  hither  and  thither,  without  a  will  of  his  own.  He 
must  demand  recognition  in  an  unmistakeable  way.  In  that 
direction  lies  mental  and  physical  emancipation.  And  his 
self-assertion  will  help  give  us  the  much  needed  democracy 
we  have  long  been  seeking.  If  government  was  not  meant 
to  secure  the  utmost  happiness  to  every  individual,  what 
earthly  purpose  can  it  serve?" 

Cox  had  finished.  There  was  not  the  slightest  indication 
in  the  way  he  looked  at  me  that  he  felt  that  he  had  over- 
stated his  case.  On  the  contrary,  his  was  the  air  of  a 
pleader  who  had  inexhaustible  data  upon  which  he  had  as 
yet  but  scantily  drawn. 

When  I  left  him  that  noon,  I  had  a  new  picture  of  my 
old  classmate — a  man  whom  I  might  yet  see  as  a  leader  of 

23 

263Ji91 


men,  who  might  be  a  lawmaker  and  find  joy  in  it,  who 
might  be  a  commercial  Colossus  in  an  altogether  different 
sense  than  his  classliiates  had  prophecied. 

As  we  shook  hands,  with  a  more  genuine  promise  on  both 
sides  of  looking  one  another  up,  he  said : 

"Last  time  I  was  so  engrossed  in  myself,  that  my  con- 
stant stunt  of  trying  to  pull  myself  up  by  my  bootstraps 
didn't  look  foolish  to  me.  That  stunt  is  over.  I've  got  my 
bearings  now.  I  know  what  we  want ;  but  what  is  more 
important  I  know  how  we're  going  to  get  it.  If  Sociali-m 
hasn't  the  message  the  salaried  man  has  been  straining  hi.- 
ears  to  catch,  to  what  else  can  he  turn?  In  God's  name^ 
for  whom  can  it  have  more  significance?" 


24 


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